Light Movement 12: Vincent Grenier

Vincent Grenier

curated by Ute Aurand and James Edmonds

This month we are very lucky to be able to offer you this incredible double program from Vincent Grenier, who will be present at the Arsenal and visits us as part of a tour of Europe. Grenier originates from Quebeck City Canada, but has spent much of his time living in New York, as well as being highly active in the Montreal Art scene of the 70's and 80's. Since the 70's he has made experimental films, creating a body of distinct work on 16mm, before branching out into HD cinema at the end of the 90's, furthering his facination with uncertain spaces, unexpected shifts in filmic constructions and "visual movements comprised of both experiential
and physical interactions with the image and philosophical queries into
the nature of representation." (VG)

"From the beginning he has devoted himself to the essential questions of the cinema
in his work, especially those of light and projected shadows, the
contours of a given space, duration. The strategies that he uses are
always simple: Time is at the heart of all his films, he always carries
out a ritual, his camera observes movement, the tiniest shift, very
precisely. Since his very first films, Grenier
focuses his interest on the simple gestures of the everyday. To
dissolve the abstraction, to draw one's attention on the minute details
which when filmed, become very poetic and reveal the individual behind
the mechanical and the routine" (Nicole Gingras)

This evening there will be two 50 minute programs, the first presented by Ute Aurand focuses on recent works as well as drawing some connections to earlier structural pieces which employ durational and perceptual mechanisms. The second part, presented by Light Movement will feature works mostly completed on celluloid from the late 70's onwards, and which embody a richness of colour or light, where formal composition reflects the rythum and thoughts of the soundtrack, or the conceptual elements of the spaces depicted.

Vincent
Grenier was born in Quebec City, Canada. He has lived largely in the US.
mostly New York City and now Ithaca, NY. In spite of this, he was a
frequent contributor to the Montreal Art scene of the 70's and 80's. He
has made experimental films since the early seventies when he received
an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in California. Grenier's films
have been shown in the United States, Canada and Europe at showcases
such as the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the Anthology Film Archives,
the Pacific Film Archives, the Collective for Living Cinema and Cinéma
Parallel in Montréal. His films and videos have earned him nine
production grants from the Canada Council in the period between 1974
and1992, and in New York State, from CAPS (1979), NYFA (1995), ETC (1992
& 1994), NYSCA (2007-2008) and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Fellowship (2010-2011).

He has made over two dozen films and since the
late 90's more than a dozen videos. Many of these videos were chosen in
yearly selections of Grenier's work at key avant garde film festivals
such as Views from the Avant Garde of the New York Film Festival , the
Rotterdam Film Festival, in the Netherland, the Onion City Film
Festival, Chicago, and Media City Film and Video Festival, Windsor,
Ontario. Grenier's films and videos were the subjects of retrospectives
at Media City, Windsor, Ontario and Images Film & Video Festival's
Canadian Images Spotlight, Toronto, both in 2006. Seven of his films
& videos were curated in the Whitney Museum of American Art
1970-2000 American Century Film program. Films by Grenier are included
in the Donell media library in NYC, the National Film Archive, Ottawa,
the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, AGO, Toronto and at many other
institutions in Canada and the US.

LES CHAISES, (9 min 2008), earned Jury's
Choice, one of the first prizes, Black Maria Film Festival 2009, and
Honorable Mention at Media City Film & Video Festival, Windsor ON;
TABULA RASA (7.5 min. 2004), 2 nd prize Media City Festival, Windsor,
Canada; Views from the Avant Garde, New York Film Festival and Onion
Film & Video Festival, HERE (6.5 min, 2002) Awarded Gold for best
Experimental film, New York Film Expo, COLOR STUDY (4.5 min, 2000)
Rotterdam Film festival, London and Toronto Film Festivals , Lincoln
Center, Second prize at the Black Maria Film Festival and MATERIAL
INCIDENTS, (6 min. 2001), Rotterdam Film Festival. & New York Video
Festival, FEET (27 min., video, 1994) won second prize at the 1995 Black
Maria Festival and was shown in the WNET series Reel NY. His films
include: OUT IN THE GARDEN (1991)--Best Documentary, 1992 Ann Arbor Film
Festival, Best Experimental Documentary, 16th Atlanta Film/Video
Festival, shown on WNET and London Film Festival; YOU (1990)--Black
Maria Festival; TIME'S WAKE--(1987) Prize Winner Black Maria Festival;
INTERIEUR INTERIORS (1978)--Prize Winner, San Francisco Are institute
Film Festival; WORLD IN FOCUS (1976) Second Prize Winner, Ann Arbor Film
Festival; and WINDOW WIND CHIMES (1974)-- Prize Winner, Bellevue Film
Festival in Oregon.

Grenier curently teaches at Binghamton University and lives in Ithaca New York.-